[Interview with Director]

Is Architecton a companion piece to your 2018 documentary Aquarela?

I am very grateful that A24 helped me to make Architecton and to complete my ‘A’ trilogy, which I started with producer Heino Deckert and his company, Ma.ja.de., with the documentary ¡Vivan las Antipodas! in 2011, then Aquarela in 2018, and now Architecton. These three films changed my way of seeing the world and thinking about our place in it.

The Italian Michele De Lucchi is the only architect to appear in the film. What was his grand idea?

Instead of a cathedral or a shopping mall, he was thinking about open space - empty space - a circle where man cannot enter. Never. It should be in the centre of our cities, to remind us that Nature is at the centre of our existence.

What made him different from the other architects you consulted?

He was the only one with humility, admitting he was ashamed of building drab rectangles in Milan, adding more concrete to a city that’s already losing its soul. The other architects talked about being sustainable, suggesting concepts like greening the façades and balconies and rooftops of buildings, but the structures would still be made from concrete and metal, and cost the same to produce. The projects were still harmful to nature, despite the greening. Nobody seemed to think that concrete is catastrophic.

Interview with Victor Kossakovsky